


Out of Touch

by Vex_ation



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25851520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vex_ation/pseuds/Vex_ation
Summary: When Black returns after two long years in the Light Stone, he realizes the rest of the world has moved on without him. Now that there isn't the looming threat of the end of the world over his head, he figures now is a good a time as any to journey around Unova, meet up with friends old and new, and really explore all the beauty the region has to offer. This time, he's taking the slow and relaxing route-- he deserves a vacation after all.
Relationships: Bel | Bianca/Cheren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	Out of Touch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Skittymon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skittymon/gifts).



“Aspertia City-- the city that reaches for the sky”

Black read the sign over and over again, taking occasional peeks at the clouds above him before returning to the sleepy city below. He was enamored by the fact that they were actually moving-- clouds in the Dream World were practically nonexistent, just little painted pieces of the scenery. He tried cloud watching a few times just to see if they changed shape or moved at all, but they just floated stagnantly in the sky as though they were just a cloud-shaped hole in the sky. Black had spent so long staring at them he imagined he could draw them from memory by now. The clouds here, however, moved. They twisted into new shapes and were blown across the sky, the breeze sending the colorful leaves dancing around his ankles as they swept through the streets. There were the sounds and sights and feelings of people moving and going about their day. Things changed in Aspertia City, and Black wasn’t entirely used to it. 

Realizing people would probably find him weird if he stared at signs and clouds all day, Black began to walk around the city. The cobblestone streets were cool beneath his feet. He still liked the feelings of the wind in his hair, and had it not been creepy, he probably would have just laid down in the middle of the sidewalk to take it all in. He was, however, smart enough to know that someone might just call the cops on him if he dared, so instead he just walked around the town, jumping on every leaf just to feel it crunching beneath his feet. It had been so long since he had seen the changing leaves or felt the crispness of fall. He stared at the multi-level apartments, the little fenced in gardens of hedges and herbs tucked between buildings and sidewalks. He saw little weeds poking through the cracks in the cobblestone, trees seemingly shivering in the breeze as their leaves fluttered to the ground. And then he saw a beautiful little garden at the end of the street, tucked carefully behind the public bike racks and nestled into the tiny space between a little house and the little pond beside it. 

He approached the gates, looking fondly at the sprouts poking through the dirt. It reminded him of his garden in the dream world. He had poured countless hours into that little patch of dirt, the twisting and turning of blooming plants the only thing to remind him he was alive. Even now, he found himself drawn to the tiny fence enclosing the miniature garden, looking fondly down at the little rows.

A door creaked somewhere ahead, but Black didn’t look up. He found himself too enamored by the plants to care what anyone thought. A small voice called out to him as he watched. 

“Do you like them?” asked the voice. “It’s the end of the season, so this is one of the last days I can garden.”

Black raised his eyes to see a woman, just old enough to be his mother, kneeling in the dirt. She had soft brown hair tied in a messy bun and wide eyes like a Deerling sunken in her pale face. She was slender, with an anxious, soft aire about her that made Black mirror her melancholy smile. No words were exchanged, but there was a mutual understanding that only people like them could share. Different as they may be there was a certain tiredness in their eyes, one that permeated their entire being and laid bare on their faces the untold trials they had been through in the past. As the woman sighed and began to tend lovingly to her bare little garden, Black mused to himself that she reminded him of a girl he knew. The woman looked up at him, suddenly scrutinizing him more than before. 

“You look familiar,” she said, and Black sighed. He had a feeling he knew where it was from. He was waiting for the shouts of “you’re the champion” or “you rode Reshiram” or even “I thought you were dead!”. Instead, those tired eyes bore right through him and said,

“You were the trainer my Lord had told me about.”

Black felt his hands clench involuntarily around the fence. He couldn’t stop himself, and soon he was leaning far enough to topple into the garden and blurting out,

“You were in Team Plasma.” He saw the locket around her neck, the parting clouds making it gleam in the sun. “You’re still in Team Plasma.”

The two of them locked eyes, both remnants of something great that were left behind like the Darmanitan at the Desert Resort. They were out of place, out of touch. And yet, here they were, connected by a little garden in a sleepy city. The woman stood up and reached out her dirt-covered hand, unsmiling. 

“My name is Ashley,” she replied. “And you, champion, need no introduction. Come with me.”

Black ended up following her to the outlook above Route 19, the two of them sitting idly on a bench and watching the sky for at least twenty minutes before either of them dared to speak. 

“You changed my life,” Ashley said suddenly. “When I first heard about you, the strange trainer who spit in the face of everything I stood for, who brainwashed his poor pokemon to love their trainer and their battles and their pokeballs, I hated you.”

Black shifted uncomfortably in his seat. 

“When you defeated my Lord N, when you sent me and my daughter into hiding, I resented you. But when I walked under the night sky, when I saw how Team Plasma changed without my Lord behind it, I realized you had unintentionally freed us from the prison we were in. You hadn’t sent me into hiding, you had broken the chains by which the sages bound us in our twisted ideals. You made me question the hymns and prayers and divine punishment we wrought on other trainers. You made me question myself, my sisters, and my Lord. You showed me the Truth, so though I scorn you for all the pain you’ve caused, I suppose I should thank you.”

Black turned to her, his gaze softening. It was hard not to feel awkward standing around with someone who probably hated your guts, but it was interesting to hear nonetheless. “N taught me a lot of things too, and uh… he’s a great dude: you were right to believe he really wanted what’s best. N always wanted Team Plasma to be a force of good… I think he really believed in everything he did. N loves pokemon more than anything else in the world, and I know he would be proud to know you were his friend.”

Ashley blinked. “The fight between Truth and Ideals happened two long years ago. The world is moving on,” she said. “I will not pretend to be your friend, but I can at least sympathize with you. Everyone is beginning to forget, but I feel I am still in the forest, tending to Pokemon and awaiting the return of my king.”

“I know what you mean. Everything feels so different now. I wish I could just”-- he threw his hands out towards the expanse of sky before him-- “catch up and see how everything has changed.” 

Ashley smoothed out her skirt and stood up suddenly. 

“What’s stopping you, Hero of Truth?” she asked him, turning away before he could answer. He watched her go, slack-jawed, and wondered what she meant. Black stared back over the outlook, watching the moving clouds, and thought about the courage gifted to him by the tired woman with the garden. He checked his watch. It read 1:37. He sighed. There were still 28 minutes until the Trainer’s School ended its day. Black watched a Patrat scurry onto the railing, gawk at him for a moment, and then sneak through a gap in the fence behind him. 

By the time Black looked back down at this watch, it read 1:39. He blinked at it, captivated by the endlessly blinking dots between the hour and minute numbers. It just ticked away, completely removed from the world around it or the ebb and flow of cities and people that relied on it each day. Whether or not they cared, whether or not they wanted it to, and whether or not Black was looking, the watch kept ticking. As Black looked up at the mountains and let the minutes waltz by, he realized the world was much the same— it moved on whether or not he was in it. He realized he understood what Ashley meant. 

Even from the outlook, Black could hear the unmistakable chime of the schoolbell from down below at the Trainer’s School. Being in the Dream World for so long, where the days and nights blended and the sky was still and painted, he was surprised at how intense and violent the sound was. He was not used to the hustle and bustle, finding himself overwhelmed by even the softest of noises. It was better than hearing yourself speak all the time, but it still made him wince. 

Black stretched out his stiff muscles and sighed, flopping over on the bench and resting his head on his arms as he walked the trainers pour out from school, spreading out in every direction as they waved to friends and ushered their pokemon onto the sidewalk to go home. He fondly remembered his own twenty minute stint in the Trainer’s School in which Cheren let him sit at a desk and act as the “phone a friend” option for pokemon trivia before kicking him out and explaining that schools ‘had an age mandate’ and ‘you had to enroll in the beginning of the year and not in October’ and ‘you don’t even fit in the chairs’ and a bunch of other logistical stuff that Cheren was great at. Now, he had to find something else to do, like wait until everyone else went home so he could go talk to Cheren. 

Really, he wanted to apologize. Last time he had seen Cheren he was evil and unconscious in his arms-- now he was a respected teacher and trainer. Black didn’t have the chance to apologize for all the memories he couldn’t share with them, all the reunions they couldn’t have, and everything they missed when they got caught up in… everything. As he bounded down the stairs, slipping into the school before the doors could close, he thought about everything he was going to say. When Cheren, who was cleaning up the last bits of chalk from the tables, looked up and him and smiled, Black suddenly forgot everything he wanted to say. Before he could find his bearings, he heard a small knock on the door and suddenly White and Bianca were coming in behind him, both beaming at his startled reaction. 

“You’re all here!” he said. 

“Observant,” Cheren replied teasingly. Black zoned out through the rest of their chatting, too joyful at just being around them to care what they said or did. After all, interacting with so many people at once was a little overbearing after 2 years of solitude. When there was a lull in the conversation and they managed to settle into a comfortable silence, Black clapped his hands together and grinned. 

“We should start over!” he announced. His friends looked around at each other quickly, as though to confirm they were all in mutual misunderstanding, then turned back to Black. 

“I never really got to go on a proper journey with you back then,” he explained, “so why not now.”

Cheren frowned. “I would love to accompany you during summer vacation, but I have a class that requires my full attendance.”

“And I just started working with the Professor… I’m not sure if I can drop out or anything,” Bianca added. Black turned to White hopefully. 

“I have tons of clients booked for right now so I can’t commit to anything,” White admitted. He could see ‘I’m sorry’ written on each of their faces and was glad they all had passions and jobs and obligations… but a tiny part of him ached that he had been left behind. They had moved on. Black wondered how many important moments in their lives he wasn’t there to see. 

“Well,” Bianca said, “maybe we can’t be there for eeeveryyyyything, but I’m sure we can meet up with you sometimes!”

Black brightened. “Yeah! I can meet up with you if you’re traveling and explore the rest of the region by myself, catch up with the gym leaders and stuff along the way!”

“You know…” Bianca cooed, “someone here is taking their gym leader test really soon!” 

Cheren blushed madly and focused on adjusting his tie as Bianca giggled and playfully elbowed him. Black couldn’t fight the grin spreading across his face. 

“REALLY!?” he couldn’t help but shout. “Cheren this is GREAT! I’m so happy for you!” 

Being as easily distracted as they were, Black didn’t drop the ‘Cheren becoming a gym leader’ thing even during their dinner out and goodbyes. By the time the thought left his head, they were already gone. He found himself alone again in Aspertia City, the breeze cool on his skin as his feet scuffed the cobblestone. But as he looked at the setting sun, he realized he hadn’t consulted the most important players. Calling out his Pokemon one by one, he explained to them his plan: He was going to travel around Unova without the hubbub of gym battles or world saving or guilt or stress. He was going to go on an adventure to rediscover Unova and maybe even himself. Judging by their happy faces, Black could only assume they were on board. Thus, he took off at a slow walk. There wasn’t anywhere he had to be, so it was better to take it all in-- the earth-shaking conflict was all over and he had all the time in the world. 

From the outlook over Route 19, a woman watched silently as a boy ambled along the sidewalks, his eyes alight with reinvigorated wonder and insatiable curiosity. She found herself smiling despite herself as he walked towards the sunset with a smile on his face. She watched him disappear through the gates, then stood up and brushed herself off while the last glimpse of twilight was there to light her way home. She silently wished the boy good luck, but walked towards the familiarity of the sleepy town: she had a daughter waiting for her and a garden to attend to. 


End file.
